THE BROAD HIGHWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BROAD HIGHWAY.

.'.■ Under the eminent appropriate title " The Broad Highway," (Sampson, Low and Co., London '; George Robertson, Sydney), Mr. j Jeffrey Farnol has written one of the most interesting and entrancing books of the ■'season.! He is a Stanley Weyman in simpler and Saxon, guise, and this " Romance •'•of Kent' 1 has iall the swing and earnestness of "A"; Gentleman of France," while the drawing of character and perception of human nature is finer still. The writer presents an exquisite picture of county life, and of the lanes, hedgerows and woods of - -Old England. We are introduced very early to a travelling tinker, whose recipe for a successful story Mr. Farnol has closely followed.. "As for your . book, wot yu have to do is to give 'em a little blood now and then, with plenty of love, and you .can't go far wrong." The ecene is laid in the • time of the Prince Regent, and both the .fighting and the love-making are of the fu11... ... blooded order. The hero, Peter. Vibart, •is cut off in his uncle's will with ten guineas, while his cousin Maurice—the villain of the story — twenty thousand, with the'pious hope added by the amiable testator; that it "may help him to the devil within the year, or as soon after as may be." However, tie sum of £500,000 is to be paid to either Maurice or Peter if either, shall within the year become the ; husband of the Lady Sophia Sefton, a very beautiful and dashing young lady, a reigning toast, who has even rebuffed the Prince Regent , himself. Upon this the young hero becomes possessed "of an overmastering . ■ desire, a great longing for field and meadow and hedgerow, for wood and coppice and "shady stream, for sequestered inns and 'wind-swept heaths, and ever the broad liighway in front." So he sets out on a 'vagrant life, meeting with all sorts of experiences, and we are able to follow him 'through the enchanted country without suffering any of the disagreeables of the journey, until, of course, all culminates happily. There* 'is not a dull page from cover cover, and the story remains fresh and arivid to the end.